I had become fearful that matters were going wrong with you, as I heard nothing from you, neither by letter nor per the newspapers which have always been so regardful of your welfare — Your “Marginalia” in the Jan number of “Graham” was my next comforter — Your letter etc. is my last and best. I thank you for it truly — Well, I haven’t time now to reply succinctly to all the points in it — a notice of a part must suffice. I like “Hawthorne” generally — don’t think it is the best critical article you have ever written. “Ulalume” is the only piece of poetry I have read for some time -’tis a beauty — Before I had read two verses of it in the Am. Rev. I stopped, went back again, read it over, and vowed that Edgar A. Poe was its author — I rejoice that your health is so good — “best” — may it continue so! — $2000. per annum, for hammering, is a pretty good price to pay — there is some reason in your idea of profiting by abuse, I must confess — there isn’t much difference between praise and abuse, to a man of genius, as you intimate in your “Marginalia” — I will re-enclose the slips in my next — I have not seen the article on the Am. Library in “Blackwood.” And now, a word about The Stylus. I intended, when I commenced my letter, to have more than a word to say — intended to suggest to you a plan for the circulation of it in my vicinity; but I can’t write any more now — there has a dizziness come upon me, a dazzling of the eyes, the precursor of a sick-headache to which I am subject, so that I can scarcely see where and what I am penning — I’m a poor devil student of Medicine, and cannot do much in a pecuniary way for your enterprise — I shall forward you my subscription in advance, if you wish for it (suppose you don’t want it just yet, or I would enclose it now) — and shall do what I can in acting for you, be assured — but I must tell “you next time what. I shall try to accomplish, and what I think would be well for you to do — when will you probably start upon your Western tour? — when will you probably issue your first number? Who is the “most distinguished Am. scholar” engaged to superintend your classical department?
Yours Cordially — G. W. Eveleth
Jan. 11 —
E. A. Poe Esq.
Edgar Allan Poe to George W. Eveleth — February 29, 1848
New-York — Feb. 29 — 48.
My Dear Sir,
I mean to start for Richmond on the 10th March. Every thing has gone as I wished it, and my final success is certain, or I abandon all claims to the title of Vates. The only contretemps of any moment, lately, has been Willis’s somewhat premature announcement of my project: — but this will only force me into action a little sooner than I had proposed. Let me now answer the points of your last letter.
Colton acted pretty much as all mere men of the world act. I think very little the worse of him for his endeavor to succeed with you at my expense. I always liked him and I believe he liked me. His intellect was o. His “I understand the matter perfectly,” amuses me. Certainly, then, it was the only matter he dil understand. “The Rationale of Verse” will appear in “Graham” after all: — I will stop in Phil: to see the proofs. As for Godey, he is a good little man and means as well as he knows how. The editor of the “Weekly Universe” speaks kindly and I find no fault with his representing my habits as “shockingly irregular”. He could not have had the “personal acquaintance” with me of which he writes; but has fallen into a very natural error. The fact is thus: — My habits are rigorously abstemious and I omit nothing of the natural regimen requisite for health: — i.e — I rise early, eat moderately, drink nothing but water, and take abundant and regular exercise in the open air. But this is my private life — my studious and literary life — and of course escapes the eye of the world. The desire for society comes upon me only when I have become excited by drink. Then only I go — that is, at these times only I have been in the practice of going among my friends: who seldom, or in fact never, having seen me unless excited, take it for granted that I am always